Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 99 total)
  • How to avoid catching colds/flu
  • hels
    Free Member

    Anybody have any wise advice ? I will try anything, I am so fed up with catching everything that comes around. I am putting it down to being quite unfit, having a stressful year and working in a big building with 1000s of staff this year. And catching the bus more than usual.

    The internet suggests:

    Lots of handwashing
    Don’t touch eyes and nose
    Gloves on public transport, don’t touch the buttons on ATMs/EFTPOS handsets and give supermarket trolleys a clean before use
    Avoid central heating
    Dress warmly
    Sleep well
    Eat plenty of fruit and veg and drink plenty of water
    Regular exercise

    I can do all of the above apart from the central heating, they moan their faces off at my work if I open the window. I think they might be insulted if I wander about in a surgical mask.

    Anything else ? I have cleaned the house from top to bottom, even the shower-head and plan to change the filters in the car air conditioning, or not use it.

    kudos100
    Free Member

    Take a garlic supplement: http://www.healwithfood.org/commoncold/eating-garlic-prevents-flu-study.php

    It won’t speed up recovery, but will help prevent catching colds.

    akak
    Free Member

    Get the flu jab each year. I wouldn’t focus on cleaning things as such but avoid being close to people who are potentially ill.

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    binners
    Full Member

    1981miked
    Free Member

    Not sure how to prevent getting them but when I feel it coming on I take Echinecea pills or droplets in water. It usually stops it getting to bad and clears it up quicker.

    I though I was susceptible to colds as I seemed to pick one up every other month, I mentioned it to the doctor on a routine check up and he suggested I may have sinusitis.. Turned out I did, had an operetion to remove nasal polops and been much better since. Hasn’t totally sorted it but definately much better.

    hels
    Free Member

    Will try the garlic, but I can’t avoid people sadly, I work in a huge building with shared toilets. Not sure I can make a private bathroom a condition of my contract.

    I am adding avoiding the work canteen to my list, there are some right hand-nose-wipers among the staff. And the food is grim anyway.

    IanMunro
    Free Member

    Do people *really* get the flu that often?
    I get my fair share of colds etc, but I can think of only once when I had something that was probably flu.

    MSP
    Full Member

    Tell people who come into work when they have a cold/flu, that they aren’t heroes they are selfish **** ****.

    kcal
    Full Member

    Usually try to eat not too badly, may take more alcohol than is advisable; but otherwise have the garlic tabs as above, echinicea tabs as well when think cold is on its way. Exercise pretty well, do have C/H in house..

    No more or less colds than average person as far as I can tell. Friends swear by First Defence – which looks like just wiping out the bugs in your throat with big slug of surgical spirit..

    Not much help really..

    hels
    Free Member

    Sinusitis – interesting. Sorry for detail, but this latest incident has been accompanied by some really bright yellow snot – was thinking I might have a sinus infection. Definitely worth investigating thanks.

    chipsngravy
    Free Member

    Mind you don’t get a little too obsessive about hygiene 😉

    Add plenty of fresh air to the list.

    mintimperial
    Full Member

    Get the flu jab each year.

    Getting the flu jab won’t make a blind bit of difference to whether or not you get a cold. Flu is not the same thing as the common cold. There isn’t a vaccine for the common cold.

    CountZero
    Full Member

    I doubt very much if there’s any real incidence of flu, having had it twice, I know for a fact that even getting out of bed to go to the loo was a major effort, let alone getting out of the house. If you can function on a day-to-day basis, then it’s a cold, pure and simple.
    You might feel like dying, but flu can actually kill you.
    Unless you can avoid all contact with other humans, then catching colds is an inevitable consequence of being in working environments with other unhealthy people.
    Shit, sadly, happens.

    br
    Free Member

    I never get ill, and even when I catch a chill etc it lasts hours not days – my son calls me ‘Patient Z’ as he’s convinced I must be a mutant 🙂

    Never really had any sick leave from work either, just once in 30 years due to a bike accident.

    Eat well and often, don’t smoke and lay off the booze. Average weight, and certainly no diets and/or binge-ing. Keep fit.

    hels
    Free Member

    I am pretty sure I haven’t had ‘flu, in fact have never had it. It does tend to get bundled in with colds in general parlance, just covering all bases.

    twinw4ll
    Free Member

    I can’t remember the last time i had a cold, must be the dementia. I think good hygiene is a must, if your a nail biter, stop, i don’t particularly keep away from the germ meisters, but i’m sure it helps.
    I don’t drink coffee and go to bed at 9pm most nights, avoid anything that puts your immune system under stress.
    In fact can’t remember the last time i was ill, less than 5 days off sick in 35 years of employment.
    Just a quick edit, i am happily married to a wonderful woman, that might account
    for the last 20 years.

    Cougar
    Full Member

    The first two suggestions in your OP are key really. Most of the time you get infected by picking up germs on your hands and then transferring them to your face.

    That and getting in early with Vicks First Defence, which does actually seem to work (it’s just averted a cold for me, had a couple of days of catarrh and it seems to have buggered off).

    Eating and drinking sensibly is always good advice for general wellbeing. I wouldn’t be faffing about wiping down buttons and handles though, exposing your defence systems to daily life makes it stronger. Just look what happened to the Martians in War of the Worlds.

    You’d know if you’d had flu, trust me. “A bad cold” is not flu, any more than a bad headache is a migraine.

    Flaperon
    Full Member

    Tell people who come into work when they have a cold/flu, that they aren’t heroes they are selfish **** ****.

    Of course, some people are self-employed and don’t earn if they don’t work. Or they could work for a company with a random and punitive approach to sickness management.

    At my last job, if I went sick I didn’t get paid. Given that meant throwing away 20% of my monthly income, unsurprisingly I went into work. And that was for a FTSE-100 company.

    jambourgie
    Free Member

    Do you smoke?

    When I was a full-time smoker I used to catch every cold/flu bug going. And it’d last forever. Since quitting (most of the time) about four years ago, I rarely get them anymore. Could be down to a general increase of fitness since stopping smoking, or simply not having your fingers near your mouth all the time.

    MSP
    Full Member

    Of course, some people are self-employed and don’t earn if they don’t work. Or they could work for a company with a random and punitive approach to sickness management.

    At my last job, if I went sick I didn’t get paid. Given that meant throwing away 20% of my monthly income, unsurprisingly I went into work. And that was for a FTSE-100 company.

    So financial gain is your excuse to make other people suffer, perfect example of my point.

    imnotverygood
    Full Member

    I agree with most of your list, I have just tried first defence and zinc pills. However, I have just got a cold 😐
    To be fair, everyone around me seems to have one at the moment, including my wife. My symptoms seem pretty mild compared to hers, so maybe it is doing some good.

    66deg
    Free Member

    I once heard one of those TV AM doctors describing the difference between a cold and flu she said ” if you see a ten pound note on the floor and pick it up then you have a cold if you can’t be bothered then you have flu”.

    hs125
    Free Member

    Regarding ‘avoiding central heating’, I used to work with a lady (who was only slightly eccentric) who would insist on “Changing the air” in the office at least once a day in the winter. This involved opening every window for ten minutes or so to let cold fresh air in. I don’t know if it actually prevented illness or not, but it certainly woke you up if it was getting a bit stuffy, and everyone went along with it.

    Edit
    I suppose with most modern offices this is not even an option with fixed windows and air con.

    piemonster
    Full Member

    Anyone that goes to work with the flu is a **** and can **** off

    What’s the **** point, turn up, work like a shower of *****, make other people I’ll. **** ****.

    Clover
    Full Member

    I managed to duck the office cold from September right until the week before Christmas. Lots of veg, quite a bit of riding and the virus killing strepsils whenever people started breathing over me. I think that our central heating really helps spread everything round the office. Drives me mad but I was determined not to join the office splutterers.

    Of course, in the run up to Christmas it finally got me (why is that, you relax your guard and immediately start to go downhill?) and I spent Christmas day dosing up on Lemsip cold and flu.

    househusband
    Free Member

    How to avoid catching colds/flu

    Don’t work amongst a smorgasbord of bugs, germs and viruses. Like, say, a secondary school. Like the one I teach at…

    Squidlord
    Free Member

    So financial gain paying the rent and feeding your children is your excuse to make other people suffer, perfect example of my point.

    FTFY

    jota180
    Free Member

    Anyone that goes to work with the flu is a **** and can **** off

    Anyone with the flu wouldn’t be able to get out of bed, let alone manage to get to work

    hels
    Free Member

    I think there is a cogent argument that it is not the people who come to work when they have a cold who are the problem, more the people who don’t wash their hands and contribute to the spread of the cold.

    cloudnine
    Free Member

    Learn how to wash your hands properly and avoid touching your face.
    http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/diseases/washing_hands.html

    Its the sub concious rub of the nose or eye that will infect you… unless someone has recently sneezed and the virus in question is airborne.
    Just to be clear..
    cold/manflu = feel like crap
    Proper flu = you wont be able to even get out of bed

    cheekyboy
    Free Member

    A pint of Bovril laced with chilli sauce and brandy 😈

    gofasterstripes
    Free Member

    Dunno about you lot but every time someone near me sneezes I hold my breath as long as I can.

    I seem to get colds less than most, so it may be of some help.

    donks
    Free Member

    If you have young kids then you’re doomed. The little blighted pick something up at least once a month, which gives them the sniffles but knocks the stuffing out of adults. Kids are wretched little germ bags.

    On the work front, whilst I agree that bringing your cold into the work place sucks, I’d be out of a job if I stayed away every time i got a cold. In my experience Most employers hate two things….. Employees with kids, and employees off sick.

    piemonster
    Full Member

    Anyone with the flu wouldn’t be able to get out of bed, let alone manage to get to work

    More specifically I’m thinking of people “coming down with flu”

    I may not actually be as grumpy as I read.

    globalti
    Free Member

    Everything you write in your OP is correct. Just wash your hands as soon as you enter your house from outside so as to prevent viruses infecting points of contact.

    Central heating makes no difference.

    Northwind
    Full Member

    Someone- might have been Andy Barlow- recommended me to basically mainline vitamin c, garlic and echinacea any time it seemed like either a) high risk of a cold or b) really didn’t want to get one (race, holiday etc) and c) when you’ve already got one and want to smite it. No idea if it works but at least it feels like you’re doing something.

    Nobeerinthefridge
    Free Member

    Not had a cold in about 3 years, never had flu. Haven’t a clue why, but I don’t really get the ‘I get it because I’m exposed to it’ that teachers and the likes spout. Surely your immune system is stronger due to exposure?.

    Drac
    Full Member

    It’s a virus so no garlic, magic drops is going to prevent it. Living healthy helps, drinking plenty fluids helps as it’ll keep you immune system fighting. If you’re not sure if you’ve had the flu or not you’ve not.

    big_n_daft
    Free Member

    Sinusitis – interesting. Sorry for detail, but this latest incident has been accompanied by some really bright yellow snot – was thinking I might have a sinus infection. Definitely worth investigating thanks.

    http://www.boots.com/en/NeilMed-Sinus-Rinse-Kit_121768/

    this helps a lot

    feels like you are self water boarding for the first few times

    househusband
    Free Member

    I don’t really get the ‘I get it because I’m exposed to it’ that teachers and the likes spout. Surely your immune system is stronger due to exposure?

    Well… seeing as you’ve singled out my comment:

    Personally… I have Type 1 diabetes and asthma so have an immune system weaker than many of my colleagues – and, by the sound of it, you. I hope that others are luckier and aren’t as prone.

    Any words of wisdom you’d like to ‘spout’..? 😉

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